Soybean futures retreated from their best levels in 28 months on Monday, joining the broader market selloff. While it did finish the trading session slightly higher, crop prices failed to maintain the momentum, despite bullish news. 

November soybean futures edged up $0.025, or 0.02%, to $10.2275 per bushel to finish the trading session on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT). Soybean prices are coming off a 2.5% weekly gain, lifting the agricultural commodity to a year-to-date rally of 7%. Soybean has been trading at its best level in 28 months. 

According to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly progress crop report, 63% of the domestic soybean crop was rated in good-to-excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week. 

The USDA also rated 61% of the corn crop in good-to-excellent condition, unchanged from a week ago. 

Reuters reported that Chinese state-owned firms purchased at least eight bulk shipments of US soybeans estimated to be around 480,000 tons. This is in addition to the 1.2 million tons Beijing had acquired over the last week. Although China’s agricultural imports lagged in the first half of 2020, the world’s second-largest economy is seemingly making up for its lackluster purchases.  

But can the soybean rally be sustained? Some experts are skeptical, suggesting that the soybean market has touched upon its last bullish phase. Tobin Gorey of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia told Reuters: 

The soybean rally is perhaps entering its late phase. The investor long is likely to be close to historical highs, suggesting waning buying appetite going forward. 

In other industry news, a new US and global soybean market outlook was released, and Moe Agostino, Chief Commodity Strategist at Farms.com Risk Management, suggested that a wide variety of factors could impact soybean prices over the 2020-2021 marketing season.  

Global soybean ending stocks have been trending lower the last couple of years. This year will depend largely upon whether the USDA continues to lower the production acres and yield in the U.S. – we had a derecho storm, we had some dry weather, we haven’t had a very good finish for the soybean crop. 

In other agricultural commodities, October corn futures picked up $0.005, or 0.14%, to $3.7025 per pound. October wheat futures added $0.0125, or 0.23%, to $5.56 a pound. October coffee futures rose $0.011, or 0.98%, to $1.131 per pound.